Happy New Year! Well, at least if you are a Christian in the Western tradition this is the first day of the new church year, the first Sunday in Advent. The Eastern churches (Greek and Russian Orthodox) calculate the year a bit differently.
The story goes that school teacher Rowland Hill chanced to see a postman deliver a letter to a young woman, and was touched when she tearfully declined delivery. At the time the postage was collected from the addressee, and the woman couldn't afford it. Hill paid the charges and questioned the recipient. It turned out that the letter was from her fiancée who was working in London, and she hadn't seen him for months. Although they had worked out a system of symbols to be used on the outside of the envelope in case she couldn't afford to accept the letter, it wasn't the same. Hill kept the event in mind, and some years later proposed a novel system of postage stamps. As this eliminated a major bookkeeping burden on the postal system, as well as eliminating the cost of carrying all the letters that were declined, the system was adopted and Hill designed and supervised the printing of the world's first postage stamp.
Today also marks the first heart transplant, the first spacecraft to reach Jupiter, and the most severe industrial accident in history.
1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, returned to his post after six years of exile in France. He thought that he had resolved his dispute with King Henry II during a meeting in Normandy.
1775 - The "Father of the US Navy" John Paul Jones, then First Lieutenant on the Alfred, raised the Grand Union flag, the first time a US flag was raised at sea. The Grand Union had the familiar thirteen red and white stripes, but the Union Jack was in the place of the current field of stars.
1948 - Whittaker Chambers led House Un-American Activities Committee investigators, apparently including Richard Nixon, to a hollowed out pumpkin where several rolls of 35mm film were found. At least two of the rolls were images of classified documents, evidence that Alger Hiss was spying with Chambers. The Hiss perjury indictment propelled Nixon to national prominence.
1967 - Dr Christian Barnard performed the first human heart transplant at the Groote Schuur hospital at Cape Town, South Africa. The donor had died in a road accident, the recipient was 59-year-old Louis Washkansky. Washkansky lived only eighteen days before succumbing to pneumonia, the anti-rejection drugs weakened his immune system. It wasn't until 1974 that the problem was solved.
1973 - Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to reach Jupiter, coming within 130,400 km of the cloudtops and sending back the first closeup images of the gas giant. Launched on 2 March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first craft to pass through the asteroid belt (July 1972) and has since left the solar system. The last reports received were on 31 March 1997, when the craft was some 10 billion km from Earth.
1984 - Gas leaked from a tank of methyl isocyanate at a Bhopal, India plant owned and operated by Union Carbide India Limited, possibly caused by employee sabotage. According to the state of Madhya Pradesh, approximately 3,800 persons died, 40 had permanent total disability, 2,680 had permanent partial disability, up to 100,000 were affected by the largest industrial accident of all time.
Advent Sunday, The Sunday nearest 30 November (Saint Andrew's Day), the first of four Sundays in Advent, the season preceding the twelve-day season of Christmas. From the Latin "adventus" or arrival, Advent is a "penitential" season along with Lent, a time of preparation. Many churches and families follow the 16th-century German Lutheran tradition of the advent wreath, four candles set in a circular wreath of greens (holly and ivy are traditional), also set in line in a small log trimmed with greens.
1795 - Sir Rowland Hill, British educator, inventor - Born at Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England, third of six sons of a school teacher. In 1807 he became a student-teacher at Hill Top, the Birmingham school where his father was headmaster. He taught astronomy at the school, and made and repaired scientific instruments. In 1819 the Hill family built Hazelwood School at Edgbaston, designed by Rowland and lavishly equipped for the time with a science lab, swimming pool, stage, library, and central heating. With brother Matthew published "Public Education" detailing reforms and practices of Hazelwood in 1822 including mandatory science classes and ending corporal punishment, in 1827 the school was moved to North London, and Hill retired from education in 1833. Served as secretary to the South Australian Commission from 1834 - 1839 while developing the first roll-fed printing press on the side. In 1837 he proposed the postage stamp, prior to this every envelope was priced based on weight and distance, paid by the recipient. Designed the "Penny Black," the stamp to carry a half-ounce letter, in 1839, the "Twopenny Blue" followed the next year. Of the 68 million Penny Blacks printed, none were perforated - Hill stubbornly resisted any changes in his original plan. Served at the Post Office from 1840 - 1842, later was secretary to the Postmaster in 1846, secretary of the Post Office 1854 - 1864, during which time he also was chairman of a railroad and was instrumental in developing the telegraph system in the UK. Queen Victoria made him Knight Commander of the Bath in 1860. Died at his Hampstead home on 27 August 1879, is buried at Westminster Abbey. This stamp, issued by El Salvador on the centennial of the first postage stamp, was the first of at least 600 stamps to bear Hill's likeness.
Be like a postage stamp - stick to one thing until you get there.
- Josh Billings
The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.
- Martin Luther
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
- Ernest Rutherford
If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.
- Bob Hope
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Copyright 2000 G. Armour Van Horn, all rights reserved. This document may be distributed freely. Please forward the complete message including this copyright notice.